Are We Going to Talk About Homelessness?
Homeless rates were already showing signs of increase. How bad does that get as evictions and other forms of housing insecurity loom?
Publisher’s Riff
As the Biden administration continues with what can only be described as a very White middle class-driven pandemic recovery plan, little attention is being paid to the state of homelessness in the United States. A big question looms large as we’re muddling through recovery: what happens as eviction moratoriums and other home protection measures begin to expire?
One major extension already took place that ends on June 30th. But, it’s difficult to see how that realistically aligns with a still very slow and meandering vaccination effort where still less than 40 percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated. It’s been below 40 percent for quite some time and we’re fast approaching July …
Vaccination rates are the key in approaching “normal” levels of public health and economic recovery, and the further we’re behind on that means the more distant we are from those goals. Constant lack of economic productivity, loss of small businesses and loss of wages constantly triggered by what could become a sort of standard wave of coronavirus infections only sustains calamitous economic ripple effects. That worsens the prospect of evictions, particularly as governments on all levels are giving the population enough time or cushion to transition back into a healthy economy. The Appeal offers a fairly grim glimpse into how severe the impending eviction crisis is …
Today, nearly 18 million households have little or no confidence in their ability to pay the rent, over 20 percent of renter households are behind on rent, amounting to over $50 billion, and landlords have filed hundreds of thousands of evictions during the pandemic despite the federal eviction moratorium.
Too many landlords are not understanding or don’t care that we’re still, officially, in the middle of the pandemic and that the economic hurt is widespread. As a result, we see many landlords still pushing to evict (a big part of the problem could be that half of all landlords are corporate, non-individual, institutional investors, as Business Insider reports). Here’s more on the eviction landscape from a January 2021 Urban Institute report entitled “The Looming Eviction Cliff” …
So, what happens when we’re faced with such a massive wave of evictions? Where do those people end up? That’s where we should have already looked at where the nation’s homeless rate is and begin discussing the root causes of that crisis and how it could, potentially, double if exacerbated by rising evictions and home loss. Here’s how the current homeless rate looks nationally and by state according to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness based on official federal data …
Security.org shows a steady increase in the number of homeless since 2016 in this useful report …
The number of homeless people in the U.S. has gone up every year for the past four years. From a low in 2016, the number of people counted as homeless went up by about six percent by 2020.
About 39 percent of homeless people are unsheltered, and this percentage has increased for six consecutive years.
Children account for 18 percent of homeless people.
The Santa Cruz-Watsonville, California metro area has the highest population-adjusted rate of homelessness among cities with at least 250,000 residents. Los Angeles ranks fourth, and New York City ranks eighth.
It will be troubling, but necessary, to see how eviction and housing insecurity rates influence homelessness and unsheltered/unhousing rates throughout the nation. In particular, how do those rates fluctuate or increase according to the policy environment in each state. For example: what happens to homelessness rates in politically red states that are actively and enthusiastically rejecting federal unemployment benefits or putting limitations on the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid and other safety net initiatives. Ultimately, it’s essential to keep an eye on how pervasive homelessness is and for communities to stop underestimating just how prevalent it is to the broader conversation on the state of pandemic-era economy and where we go from here.